A while back I realized that most of the compelling things I’ve learned in life, I learned from rock and roll. I don’t know if this is sad or profound or what, but I changed my sig line to reflect it.
I though I’d open this up to all the Teeming Millions:** What important things have you learned from music?**
I’ll open it up with the three that have served in my sig:
Go ahead and put artist & title if you want to/can remember it.
Numbering is also optional, but helpful since I plan to C&P them into Word and save them for future sigs.
It’s cliched, but “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Was quite profound for a 12 year old listening to her parents Lennon album.
It wasn’t in a song, but Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls was engaging in a little pre-song banter when she said “Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself, cause you’d cry your eyes out if you didn’t.”
My dad is a HUGE Dylan fan, and I grew up hearing but not apprechiating his music. It just didn’t sound pretty. I was in the fifth grade, and my hippy-dippy music teacher had us sing Blowin’ in the Wind. The line “Yes and how many seas must the white dove sail/Before she sleeps in the sand,” was pure poetry. In an instant I understood why my father, a drafted Disabled Vietnam Vet, loved Dylan. I understood the futality of war, and the price that is paid. I later read the Dylan quote “My work is understood in the blood of the heart,” and it all clicked together.
“Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war.” – Bob Marley, “War”
Easy to bitch, easy to whine, easy to moan, easy to cry
Easy to feel like there ain’t nothin’ in your life
Harder to work, harder to strive, hard to be glad to be alive
But it’s really worth it, if you give it a try
and another
From “Louisiana Lowdown”
My eyelids said four-thirty and the radio clock said six
and i was thinking up a reasonable excuse
And do you ever get the feeling
That the story’s too damn real
And there’s no present tense
And everybody’s on the stage
And it seems like you’re the only person
Sitting in the audience
–Skating Away On the Thin Ice of the New Day (J. Tull)
That’s one of those ‘get off your fanny and start living’ before it’s too late sentiments.
I LOVE that Indigo Girls quote. Used it as my sig for a while.
And one of my quotes is from the song it preceeded: “What made me think I could start clean slated - the hardest to learn was the least complicated.” Story of my freaking LIFE.
Obligatory Rush quote: “The point of a journey is not to arrive.”
And finally, the quote in my sig. Reminds me that I need to live my life for myself, and no one else.
“Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird.” Thank you, Cheap Trick. (Surrender)
“All I’ve ever wanted was a front door. All I’ve ever wanted is a place in the country. Now I realize that I want so much more.” and “We’re just following ancient history. If I strip for you, will you strip for me?” Thank you, Adam Ant. (Place In The Country-sorry if the words aren’t quite right, I don’t have a lyrics sheet and Strip)
“Even if you think your strength is gone, keep pushing, keep pushing…” Thank you, REO Speedwagon. (Keep Pushing)
“I remember watching all the once upon a times, remember thinking “Who’s content and who’s for rent?” And you said “don’t you want to be like that man?” Oh no–no–no! But then he cracks that smile and that don’t look so bad to me…Happy–I’m happy. But that ain’t goo enough for you” Thank you, Sister Hazel. (Happy)
“You have so many relationships in this life. Only on or two will last. You’re going through all this pain and strife. Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast. And they’re gone so fast. So hold on to the ones who really care. In the end they’ll be the only ones there. When you get old and start losing your hair.” Thank you, Hanson. (MMMBop)
Not that I’ve learned anything but Sting put into words the trouble that I have making decisions in Seven Days. Thank you, Sting.
Allow me, for a moment, to cheapen this thread with my presence.
“If you want to be happy for the rest of your life,
never make a pretty woman your wife,
And from my personal point of view,
get an ugly woman to marry you”
If any of you ever listen to country, Garth Brooks has some pretty deep stuff. No, I am not including 2 pina coladas, but I was thinking more along the lines of The River.
i also learned that a big legged woman ain’t got no soul. i used to think it was beetle legged women that had no soul, but of course beetle legged women have plenty of soul.
When I was in High School, music got me through every single day without commiting suicide or homicide.
What stands out most was “Subdivisions” by Rush and the whole catalog of Minor Threat.
The Rush tune told me it was okay to be different, and the hardcore band told me it was okay to tell anyone who disagreed with that to fuck off.
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Three months, two weeks, five days, 18 hours, 2 minutes and 2 seconds.
4430 cigarettes not smoked, saving $553.76.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 1 day, 9 hours, 10 minutes.
(Surrender)